Our History
Responding to the needs of the times.
For more than 375 years, the Sisters of St. Joseph have been risk takers, responding to the needs of the times. Today, we live the legacy of the courageous and faithful women in our history whose Spirit-led vision continues to call us to serve the dear neighbor without distinction.
Our Founding: 1647 - 1650
“They shall so live that their Congregation can deserve to be called the congregation of the great love of God.” Father Jean Pierre Medaille
The reason the Sisters of St. Joseph were founded was to respond to the needs of the dear neighbor without distinction. It’s a mission we received from our founder, Father Jean Pierre Medaille and our early sisters.
Medaille, a Jesuit priest in LePuy, France, gathered a group of prayerful women together to invent a new way of living religious life. The sisters broke away from the traditional religious cloistered life to serve the needs of the times and accomplish “all the spiritual and corporal works of mercy of which women are capable.”
Our Refounding: 1775 - 1808
“You are now very few but … you will be dispersed everywhere. Your number will be like the stars of heaven.” The Abbe Piron to Mother St. John Fontbonne
By the time of the French Revolution, the Congregation had grown one-hundred fold, and so had the hostility toward the Catholic church. The convents were suppressed and the sisters were forced to live as lay persons. Many sisters were imprisoned and executed.
Mother St. John Fontbonne, had gone into hiding but was arrested an put in prison. The night before her beheading, Robespierre fell from power and the prisoners were freed.
The Bishop of Lyon, France, Cardinal Fesch, encouraged Mother St. John to refound the Sisters of St. Joseph and the congregation was officially refounded when 12 women were formally received.
Because of Mother St. John’s courage, love and unifying leadership, the congregation lived on.
Journey to the New World: 1835
“…I trust and have confidence that they will bring into America the veritable and admirable spirit of the order, and that the grain of mustard seed is going to rest in St. Louis in the center of your protecting wings and will become a great tree …” The Countess de la Rochejaquelin to Bishop Rosati
People always praise Mother St. John for her leadership, but the vision to send the Sisters of St Joseph to the United States came from the Countess de Rochejaquelein. Friend to the sisters and a generous benefactor, the Countess led the mission by writing to Bishop Rosati in St. Louis, who was looking for women religious to respond to the many needs in his growing diocese.
Six young sisters left a big, beautiful motherhouse in Lyon, France and headed out on a treacherous seven-week voyage at sea to St. Louis. The great missionary movement of the Sisters of St. Joseph had begun.
Our American Start: 1836
“…on the banks of the Mississippi, at the little village of Carondelet … those sisters undertook a transplanting in America, which has grown into a mighty tree.” Sister Eucharista Galvin
The six sisters’ path diverged. Three remained in St. Louis in the village of Carondelet, living humbly in a log cabin. Although Carondelet was neither prosperous nor welcoming the sisters just rolled up their sleeves and got to work immediately, taking in orphans and teaching locals.
In 1837, after months of preparation, two more sisters arrived in Carondelet to teach the deaf, founding St. Joseph Institute for the Deaf, which remains at the forefront of deaf education today.
From there, they branched out to many different parts of the country. Carondelet is the cradle of most Sisters of St. Joseph in the United States and has the only original Sisters of St. Joseph motherhouse still standing on its original property.
Interested in learning more?
The Carondelet Consolidated Archives of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet preserves and shares the history, spirit and memory of the congregation. The purpose of the archives is to identify, collect, arrange, preserve and make available to qualified researchers official and non-current administrative records and other historical materials relating to the governance, ministries and members of the congregation.
To learn more and to make a request for information, please visit their website at https://csjcarondelet.org.